Training and Qualifications: Panel -- Everything You Want to Know About Selling Commercial Fiction

The Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Colorado Gold Conference http://www.rmfw.org is coming up, and as usual, we have an event at the large, independent bookstore, The Tattered Cover. That’s this Friday (the Cherry Creek store) and we’ll feature the Writer of the Year nominees (and the Writer of the Year, Cindi Myers) on a Panel "Coming to a Bookstore Near You: Everything You Want to Know About Selling Commercial Fiction." I – ahem – will be moderating. I have about 10 questions that I’ll be asking, (pretty much the same as I was asked last year) and I thought that I’d deal with each one of them myself here in the blog. Hey, I’m in major deadline-panic mode and anything to make it easier…

When you sold your first book, what were the circumstances? Your training and qualifications?

I’d been seriously writing 8-9 years and attending RMFW critique groups for that amount of time (I really don’t want to calculate it – wince). I had four completed manuscripts and about 5 or 6 at proposal stage – 3 chapters and a synopsis. I’d finalled and won several contests with various stories. I knew my craft, but lately I’ve heard that I’ve been getting better, and that’s a GREAT compliment.

Robin